


Promise

by My_Trex_has_fleas



Series: Survival Of The Fittest [1]
Category: Poldark - All Media Types, Return to Treasure Island (TV 1996)
Genre: Alien Invasion, Alternate Universe - Dystopia, M/M, Soldiers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-07
Updated: 2017-02-13
Packaged: 2018-09-22 18:30:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,043
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9619952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/My_Trex_has_fleas/pseuds/My_Trex_has_fleas
Summary: A little one shot for Tweak Girl, who is a wonderful amazing person. Happy Belated Birthday my love <3 Hope the little man gave you lots of kisses.This is a DarkHawk dystopia based on a piece of artwork Tweak did for Bionic!Ross.Prompt fill for No. 70: I always come back to you for the Gathering FiKi Winter Fandom Raffle Exchange.





	1. The Drop Zone

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tweak-girl (Sansa)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sansa/gifts).



The sand stretched out as far as the eye could see, a lonely sweep of brown and yellow that contrasted with the brilliant blue of the sky above it. 

Jim lay on his back and looked up from the wing of his ship. The glare was enough that he had one arm thrown over his eyes, dozing in the sun. There was no sound at all, not a hint of anything alive out there with them in the desert that had once been sea floor. 

‘Jim?’ Gunn’s voice came from the side hatch. Jim lifted his arm enough to peer out at the man who was co-piloted the ship he captained and which was used to ferry troops around to their mission drops. 

‘What?’ he called back. 

‘HQ’s on the box.’ Gunn didn’t come out into the sunshine. He was sensitive to the light. 

‘Got it.’ Jim sighed and sat up long enough to tug his ponytail tight and then scramble to his feet, boots scuffing along the wing’s surface as he made his way back and into the ship. He swung in and headed along the catwalk that led to the cockpit. Gunn was back in his seat, brown curls a wild mess around his face and held back with a blue strip of cloth. He looked up, freckled face creasing in a bright smile. Gunn was perennially cheerful and he nodded at the com. 

‘We’ve got orders.’ He brought up his heads up display, the bright colours mapping out the landscape around them in contour lines. ‘Got a target about four hundred klicks south.’ 

‘Drop in?’ Jim leaned on the back of his seat to get a better look at where they were going and Gunn nodded. He studied the map for a few moments then straightened up. ‘You tell Ross?’ 

‘No.’ Gunn chuckled. ‘He was sleeping last time I checked. I value my life, even if you don’t.’

Jim laughed. His relationship with the man who commanded the squad based on his ship was well documented by her crew and the other soldiers. They all considered him to be the only one who could handle Ross and his mercurial temper that was apt to flare at a moment’s notice, especially if he was disturbed while taking a nap. 

He left the cockpit and made his way down the gangway that led to the middle deck. He could have just called down using the com, but Jim never passed up an opportunity for a stolen moment with Ross. 

His ship was designed to carry a single squad as well as himself and his co-pilot. Being the squad’s commanding officer meant that Ross had his own quarters, which were located in the bow of the ship, and Jim came to the ladder that led down to them. His own were located just across the gangway, a convenience that he was grateful for. 

At the bottom of the ladder he found the hatch to Ross’ cabin. He didn’t bother knocking, going straight in and smiling at the lump on the bunk built into the far wall. He moved to sit on the edge and put his hand on the shoulder nearest to him. Underneath his hand he felt corded muscle and the ridges of Ross’ bionics under his skin. He’d been involved in a serious incident three years before that had seen a substantial part of his left side burnt away by the liquid fire the Skree used in their weapons. It had destroyed his eye and part of his face and shoulder. Now he was built up with cybernetic implants and it gave him a frightening look. Not that it bothered Jim. He’d been in love with Ross before he’d been injured and his feelings burned every bit as brightly as they had when they had first met as junior officers ten years earlier. 

Back then they had clashed constantly until the night they’d gotten drunk in some outpost dive and ended up in bed. It hadn’t taken long to figure out that the hostility between them had been nothing but out of control sexual tension, and once they started fucking regularly it had dissolved into a partnership that had made them one of the most successful hunter-killers in the skies. HQ hadn’t been wild about them being personally involved but had also been reluctant to break them up. 

And so they had been allowed to stay together, working in tandem as all hunter-killer units did. Ross’ squad did the ground work, going deep underground into the hives of the creatures that had come from the skies and turned their planet into a working version of hell. It was Jim’s job to get them there, fighting the thermals that had turned into torrents of superheated air that were almost impossible to fly. 

‘Hey.’ He gave the shoulder a gentle shake. ‘Baby? You awake?’

‘No.’ Ross’ voice was a deep rumble and he sounded less than pleased at the fact that he was being woken. Jim couldn’t blame him. The last mission had been a long one and Ross had lost five soldiers. He’d also been injured himself and only Dwight’s superb medical capabilities had allowed him to come through as well as he had. Jim thanked the fates every day for sending them their medic. Dwight Enys was brilliant and he’d saved more than his fair share of soldiers.

‘We’ve got a drop.’ Jim reached up and pulled back the dark curls from Ross’ face, revealing the metal contour of his cheek and ocular implant. 

Ross sighed and turned and the bionic eye implanted in his skull gleamed red. Jim heard the faint electronic sound as he focused and then sat up. His other eye was a deep hazel, but no less piercing. 

‘Where?’ he asked. 

‘Four hundred klicks south.’ Jim replied, gently stroking back dark hair from those mismatched eyes. 

‘All right.’ Ross rubbed his human eye with the heel of his hand. ‘I’m up.’

Jim moved so he could get up, wearing only the bio-cotton briefs that were the standard issue underwear of all active troops. Jim admired him. At thirty, Ross was in his prime. His long frame was lean and toned, crisscrossed with scars and shadowed with a thick pelt of dark hair across his chest and stomach. He tied his shoulder-length hair into a knot at the back of his head and Jim smiled at him. Ross cared little for protocols and his non-regulation hair and beard made him look devilishly attractive. 

Jim watched him get dressed, putting in the various layers that kept him safe, finishing off with the lightweight combat armour that had saved his life on more than one occasion. Hunters didn’t live long. Ross’ combat record spanned twelve years and he was somewhat of a legend. Killers like himself had far longer lifespans, their roles as the pilots of the terrible machines they flew keeping them off the frontline. He was also more valuable to the powers that governed what was left of the Earth’s people. Pilots had skills that could not be taught, genetic gifts that made them very special. 

Ross pulled on his gloves and Jim got up to retrieve the arm guards he wore from the locker that held his gear. He placed them one at a time on Ross’ forearms, snapping the closures shut. Ross watched him steadily, his face unreadable. Jim remembered a time when he’d used to smile freely, even laugh. Now that beautiful smile that had won his heart came more rarely, but was all the more precious for that fact. 

He finished and looked up at him. There was the tiniest quirk at the corner of Ross’ mouth and then he leaned in. Jim took the kiss, a small act of intimacy in the chaos of what they did every day in their fight to survive. 

They separated and Ross nosed once at him. Jim caught him at the back of the neck and kissed him again and heat flared between them, an inevitability even after a decade of being together. It was a side effect of their lives, knowing that every kiss could be their last. Some people couldn’t do this, found it easier to switch their emotions off and never know what it was to love someone with that all-encompassing love that would kill you if you let it. 

Jim had never wanted that. He was grateful for every second of pain and anguish because along with it came love and desire and the knowledge that he and Ross were devoted to each other in a way others would never be able to understand. 

‘Never enough time.’ Ross murmured and Jim sighed and let him go. 

‘Never.’ He smiled at Ross. ‘You’ll be careful?’ It was the same thing he always asked. 

‘No.’ This time, Jim got a proper smile and his heart stuttered at the sight of those crooked teeth at the front. ‘Probably not.’

They made their way back up once Ross was finished kitting himself out. Jim headed back to the cockpit, taking his seat. Gunn was running through the sub-routines and plotting their route. The Skree had nests all over this stretch and they would have to be very careful to avoid the deadly fire that could knock an entire ship out of the sky. He looked at Jim as he sat down. 

‘You get him up?’ He cackled at his own joke. 

‘And dressed no less.’ Jim brought his own heads up into play and started the ships engines. There was a deep rumble from below. He watched the readings change as the momentum built and then engaged the ship’s engines. There was a lurch as the Hispaniola lifted off, her landing gear folding up into her belly. Jim set her on the heading they needed and took her up a few hundred feet. It was tricky. Too low and they could crash due to the lack of lift at low altitudes, too high and they were prime targets for hostile fire and at the mercy of the thermals, which could throw a ship around until it crashed out of the sky. 

There was movement behind them and Ross came into the cockpit, ducking slightly to get in through the hatch. 

‘Squad’s on notice.’ He was a man of few words, but Jim knew how to read him perfectly. He could feel Ross’ annoyance and the tension building in him. Missions these days were far more frequent. 

‘ETA’s about an hour.’ He focused on his read outs and Ross came to stand behind him, arms folded. 

‘We got any intel on what’s down there?’ he asked and Jim pulled up the mission report. Ross read it and then huffed. ‘Typical. Looks like the usual bug hunt that’s probably going to turn into a shit show.’

‘Only one way to find out.’ Jim engaged the thrusters and the ship started to pick up speed and altitude. They would cruise at about twenty thousand feet, then come down to ten so that they could make the drop. Ross and his squad deployed using disposable ‘chutes. They would then descend below the ground and into the massive hives that the Skree built inside the upper layers of rock. They cleaned them out methodically, one by one until they had eliminated the colony and then returned to the surface for Jim to pick them up, the zone now safe to land. 

‘I better go get them sorted.’ Ross put his hand briefly on Jim’s shoulder, squeezing gently. That would be the last contact between them until the mission was done. Then he stepped back and left the cockpit and Jim heard his footsteps fade into the noise of the ship. 

It was a while before they got to the territory they would be inserting into. It looked like just another sea of sand, but Jim knew underneath there would be miles of rock carved into caverns and tunnels that housed the Skree and their hives. 

He checked the ETA and then changed readings so he could bring up the squad. There were twenty of them, Ross and his second in command Demelza and eighteen others ranging from veterans that had served with Ross for years to newbies that were getting their feet wet for the first time on this run. 

‘Jim.’ Ross voice came through his com. Jim adjusted his earpiece, the voice soothing his nerves. ‘You copy?’

‘I copy.’ He watched the life-signs come online. His eyes were automatically drawn to the one he knew best, Ross’ heartbeat and brain wave a pattern that was etched indelibly onto his mind and heart. ‘ETA ten minutes to drop. I’m starting our descent now.’

‘Copy that.’ Ross’ voice was neutral, calm and steady as a rock. ‘Moving to drop zones now.’

Jim knew that meant they would all be assembling to take their place at the drop doors, their helmets on and their heart rates speeding up a little. 

But not Ross. Never Ross. His remained true and steady as it always did. 

Jim bought the ship in over the drop zone, adjusting his speed and altitude accordingly. They hadn’t been picked up which he was thankful for. The flak could get thick if they were spotted. 

‘Coming in for drop.’ He inhaled deeply. The next part required a sudden dive from twenty thousand feet to ten, levelling out at the last minute so the squad could make the drop and then rocketing right back up again to get back to a safe altitude. 

He took the ship down, tipping her nose so she plummeted to earth and then bringing her up short at just the right time. Next to him Gun was chuckling, his adrenaline riding high as they went through the manoeuvre. Jim smiled, feeling the energy catch him as well. It was a rush he’d never grown out of. 

‘Drop in T minus ten.’ he announced and Ross voice came back to him. 

‘I’ll see you in a bit.’ He sounded like he was going for a routine flight. 

Jim felt his heart ache a little at the last words they would speak to each other until Ross came back. 

‘Just make sure your ass is waiting.’ He opened the drop doors. ‘I don’t want to be left flying around with my dick in my hand waiting for you.'

Ross chuckled over the com. 

‘You know better than that, babe.’ Jim felt a warm glow at the endearment. ‘I always come back to you.’ It was the final thing he said. 

Jim watched the heads up as the squad jumped, tracking their bio-signs and watching their trackers as they fell through the sky. Ross was the last one to go and Jim lifted his hand, his fingers interrupting the projection as he fell to earth. 

‘Be safe my love.’ he whispered and took the ship back up into the blue.


	2. Jim

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Every origin story starts somewhere.

Jim’s first memories were simple ones. 

His family lived in a settlement in what used to be the Arctic Circle. He knew this because his father had a book (a real paper one!) that had pictures of what the world was like before the Skree came with their strip mining and slave ships. 

It was only down to the fact that the Skree were insectoid and fed on what was effectively timber that the northern forests survived. Now blankets of green covered places that had once been bustling urban centres with millions of inhabitants, from the Tropic of Cancer to the northern coasts of what had once been Asia and Canada. 

Their settlement was small, an idealistic group that eschewed the sky cities that most humans now made their homes in to avoid the Skree and tried to live a lifestyle that harked back to a time long gone where farming and hunting provided most of what was needed. There were still so many places where things could be scavenged from and the risks of living on the planet’s surface were made worthwhile by the many things one could find in old buildings that had become largely overgrown. 

The first years of Jim’s life were taken up with growing up wild, free to run around and play with the others from his settlement. The fact that every summer some of their community were caught and never returned was a fact of life that everyone had become resigned to. Children and adults soon learned the value of hiding. 

Still Jim was fascinated by the atlas, and a world where there had been so many countries and people. He wondered what it must be like to have not five or six friends, but hundreds. He sometimes saw one of the monolithic ships go over head and dreamed about the things that he could see up there, the places he could go. Of course, now the central sections of the earth’s surface were desert. The great oceans had receded, inland seas gone forever. The Skree had buried themselves, delighting in the hot and dry conditions as they mined deep beneath the planet’s surface. But they needed labour and a planet with over three billion inhabitants had provided an easily overtaken populace of slaves that had toiled at their command for generations. 

The climate had changed too. The warmth of the central region and the subsequent air current patterns meant that the north was bitterly cold in winter, with large drifts of snow that covered the ground and only allowed the hardiest of creatures to live there. There were still animals but they had also mutated in the increased levels of radiation and so some of them had truly come to resemble the horrors that had once been the subject of fairy tales. 

The Skree hated the cold and this was another reason small settlements like theirs were able to live largely unmolested. They only came in the summer, picking off the isolated communities only very occasionally. But when they did come, Jim had learned in his ten years to run and hide well. He prided himself on it. 

Now he was one of the best at hiding. So good in fact that no-one had been able to find him for the past hour. His friends were all marching around the words near their homes, yelling for him and grumbling because it was starting to get on for afternoon. It was autumn, the days becoming shorter and the nights colder and soon the snows would be setting in and he would be kept inside for days on end, true torture for a healthy active little boy, so Jim stayed hidden, giggling to himself when they failed miserably to find him. He heard their voices dying away eventually and knew that they were on their way back to the settlement. he would probably get a stern talking to when he returned, but Jim didn’t really care. he had another reason for wanting to stay out past curfew and this one was worth every telling off he would ever get. 

He was adventurous by nature. It drove his parents to distraction, simple people who wanted a simple way of life. Jim, being the contrary little creature he was, got bored easily and often ran into mischief. He loved the tales of daring do and fantastic creatures his father told him from another of his books. There was also the scout ship that came to check on them once a week. It was like something out his dreams, a monster of metal and glass that gleamed in the sun. 

The men and woman that came with her were soldiers, hard faced and battle scarred and Jim hero worshipped them all, but there was one he was particularly enamoured with. Her name was Flint, a tall black woman with dark fierce eyes who carried a weapon that was too heavy for him to even lift. She was the wife of the ship’s captain, a man called Silver who only rarely came to the ground when the ship came calling. 

Silver scared Jim just the littlest bit. He was as fierce as his wife and he had a prosthetic leg from where he’d lost his own in a ship crash. His eyes were bright blue in his dark face, not summer sky blue like Jim’s but the sharp blue of a very hot flame and they burned with something that Jim could not describe. He seldom spoke, but when they came to the settlement he and Flint usually came to visit Jim’s parents and he told Jim stories about life in the skies. 

These stories were the ones Jim could hear again and again. He dreamed of going up there with them, flying in a mission ship and fighting the Skree. His parents would shake their heads in gentle dismay at his exhortations that he wanted to go fight. They were gentle people, not given to the harsh life that being part of a hunter-killer crew required. They would pacify him and tell him it was not possible and Jim would be grumpy and retreat into the woods to hide and kick stones around in a fit of pique. 

It had been on just one such excursion that he’d made his wondrous discovery. He had told no-one about it for a few reasons, mostly because foxes were considered vermin and killed off when they were found. The second was that he wanted something of his own. Everything was shared by the community. Even his father’s precious books were not ‘his own’. So when Jim stumbled across the glade with the den and the tolerant vixen who allowed him to sit quietly and watch her cubs play, Jim had wanted just this one thing for himself. 

It was where he was headed now, having extricated himself from his hiding place. he skipped and jumped over fallen branches and stomped through piles of needles as he made his way to the spot where he could crouch down and watch the foxes. Today they were all out, the vixen stretched in the last rays of the sun and the cubs tumbling over each other in play. 

Jim sat and smiled as he watched them. he would have dearly loved to catch one and take it home so it could grow into a companion for him, a friend he could have just for him. But he knew that if he did that, his father would have stuck it in a bucket of water and drowned it like he had done with the feral kittens that had been found living in the root store a few weeks before. Jim had cried and cried for days after that, but life out here was cruel and things were done this way for a reason. 

The sky was starting to darken when Jim thought that he could hear something at the very edges of his hearing. It bothered him, an uncomfortable feeling that made his ears feel like they needed to pop. Then he realised what it was. 

Jim’s head shot up, his sudden movement enough to catch the vixen’s attention. She gave a short yip and suddenly she and the cubs were nowhere to be seen, vanished from sight into their den at the base of the tree. Jim knew why, could now make out the sound that made his family run for cover. 

It was, after all, how the Skree had got their name. 

He scrambled to his feet, torn and full of fear. He’d always been taught he needed to run and hide in an attack. The Skree might kill you on sight, but that was far preferable to what they would do to you if they took you alive. No-one had ever come back from the slave hives. 

His heart was pounding so hard it felt like it was going to jump right out of his chest and Jim panicked. He wanted to hide, but he also wanted his parents. They were his whole world, warm and protective and he was more terrified of what would happen to them than he was at being caught at that moment. 

There was a shrill whine as another ship passed over head and that spurred Jim into action, his instincts overriding everything else. He turned and started running away from the settlement. 

*******

The sun was coming down by the time the Hispaniola arrived. 

Silver brought the ship in low and he glanced up at Flint. She was standing watching over his shoulder, her face unreadable. They had both known what they found when they arrived wouldn’t be good. The sensors had picked up a Skree raiding party leaving their patrol area and they had come as quickly as they could, but there were few ships as far north as this and it had taken them a while. 

They had seen the smoke curling up from the settlement as soon as they had come into visual range. It had the black oily quality that came from the Skree weapons and that meant that the chance of finding anyone alive down there was slim to none. 

‘We have to try.’ Flint straightened up. ‘Bring her down.’

‘Roger that.’ Silver nodded to Blag Dog and they swung the ship to level her out and came down vertically, the thrusters kicking up clouds of dust and ash as they landed. The landing gear took the weight, suspension kicking in, and Flint turned and left the cockpit. 

She came down through the gangways to the main assembly area. Hal already had the squad at attention and waiting for her. He handed over her helmet and Flint put it on, strapping in and then taking her rifle down from its place in the weapons locker. She checked it over and they moved into position as the landing bay door cranked open. 

They came down the ramp in formation, weapons at the ready. Flint looked through her visual display in her helmet’s visor. The Skree fire did not burn with heat, but rather with cold and it showed up as blue patches. She held up a hand and the squad halted, directing them with signals rather than words. 

They fanned out and started to sweep the settlement. Flint looked around her. The devastation was pretty much total. The subterranean dwellings all had smoke pouring out of their doorways and there were a few charred corpses strewn across the central area which had been the place where they would all congregate every time she and her crew came to call. 

Flint took a deep breath and steeled herself. Sentiment had no place here and she was very good at compartmentalising her feelings, turning off her emotions while she did her job. Silver was the one whose feelings raged out of control, his passion and drive making him such a wonderful pilot, but he would never have been able to do what she did.

She made her way through the settlement. The Skree had left nothing behind. She tried to ignore the fact that so few bodies meant that the others must have been taken. She knew these people, counted them as friends and their fate mattered to her but right at that moment there was nothing she could do for them. 

‘Captain.’ One of her squad , a PFC named Morgan, was approaching with a scanner in his hand. ‘I have a life reading.’

‘Impossible.’ Flint said. ‘Everyone here is deceased.’ 

‘Out there.’ Morgan nodded towards the woods. Flint frowned.

‘Come with me.’ she said and they moved towards where the scanner showed a small blinking light. 

**********

Jim shivered. It was so cold in the hollow below the tree and he knew that he should have been wearing something warmer, but he was so terrified by what he would find that he was rooted to the spot. 

He huddled down, head in his arms as he heard the sounds of something coming through the trees. He kept as still and quiet as he could, having long since cried himself hoarse.

The steps got nearer and Jim shook with terror at the thought that the Skree hadn’t really left, that the sound of their ships had just been a trick to make him come out so they could catch him. 

**********

Flint followed the direction the scanner told her the life form was in. All humans had a tracker implant, even the settlers. 

She spotted the tree at the edge of the clearing and realised that whoever was hiding was obviously not an adult. For one thing they would have come out when they heard the Hispaniola arrive. They would also have found it impossible to crawl underneath the tree roots into the hollow that she could now see lay beneath it.

Flint knelt down next to the opening between the roots and peered in. She could just make out a huddled shape. Not wanting to spook the child any further, she reached up and undid the catch of her helmet and pulled it off. 

‘Hey.’ she said softly. ‘Are you alright down there?’

There was no reaction and Flint looked up at the other soldier with her. 

‘Get back to the ship.’ she ordered. ‘Tell Livesey that I am bringing a child in. Probable diagnosis is shock but I won’t be able to tell anything further until I get them out.’ 

‘Copy that.’ Morgan started making his way back to the ship. Flint waited until he was far enough and then sat down, stretching her legs out in front of her. One thing she was used to dealing with was traumatised civilians, children included. Experience had taught her that you couldn’t rush something like this. 

She laid her rifle across her lap and reached into a pocket. She kept nutrient bars in there for just such occasions and for when she needed a snack. It would serve as a temptation to bring the child into the open and also counteract the effects of shock. Instead of using it as bait though, Flint preferred the direct method and tossed the bar into the hollow below the tree. 

‘You must be hungry.’ She kept her voice soft. ‘It’s getting on for dinner time.’ 

The familiar sound of her voice must have breached the child’s self-imposed fugue state because they lifted their head and there was movement as they reached for the food. Flint was pleased to hear the sound of the wrapper being torn and then chewing which sped up alarmingly. The poor little thing was obviously starving. 

‘It’s going to get cold out.’ She looked up through the trees into the dark sky, seeing the stars were already out. ‘The settlement has been destroyed. You can’t stay here, but you can come back on the ship with me.’

‘My parents.’ The voice was so quiet she could barely recognise it, but the intonation was enough for her to identify the speaker. 

‘Jim?’ She peered down into the hollow. ‘That you, baby?’

‘I was hiding.’ Jim whispered. ‘I should have gone home but there were foxes.’ His voice was shaking and Flint felt a wave of protectiveness for the little boy she knew well. 

‘Well you need to come out.’ she said. ‘They’ve gone for now, but it’s not safe out here alone.’ She extended a hand down into the opening. ‘Come on sweetheart. If you come with me, Silver will show you the cockpit. You’d like that wouldn’t you?’ She knew the boy was fascinated by the Hispaniola, but his parents had never allowed him to go aboard. Hopefully it would be enough to convince him to come out or she was in for a long night. 

There was a sniffling sound from the hollow and then movement. At last a little blond head poked out of the hollow and Flint could see just enough to realise that Jim was filthy, his little face tear stained. Still he came out and she opened her arms so he could crawl into her lap. He curled up right away and she felt him shivering. He was wearing only his shirt and hoodie but no jacket and she could feel how he was chilled to the bone. 

‘I think you need to come with me.’ She cuddled him and stroked his hair and felt him nod, face buried in her shoulder. Then he lifted his head and his blue eyes were far too sad for a child his age.

‘Are my parents dead?’ he asked. Flint considered lying for a second and telling him they were. Then she sighed and told him the truth. 

‘We didn’t find them, baby.’ She watched tears well up in his eyes. Out here, even a child knew death was preferable. 

‘Flint?’ Hal’s voice floated through the glade. ‘We got to go.’ 

‘Over here.’ she called back and he came through the brush towards them. He approached and she saw his look of surprise through his visor. 

‘Well now. Looks like you found a live one.’ He knelt down and Jim glanced at him quickly and then put both arms around Flint’s neck, hanging on for dear life. Flint patted his back soothingly. 

‘Jim, Hal’s going to take you for just a second okay? I need to get up so we can go back to the ship.’ She gently transferred him across and Jim latched on to Hal like a limpet. 

Flint got up and Hal handed the boy back. She got him settled on her hip and they started walking back to the settlement. Flint felt Jim stiffen as they got closer. The fires had died down a bit but the trauma of seeing his home burning was enough to make him start crying properly. 

Flint petted his hair and kept his face pressed against her shoulder when they walked past the charred corpses of people that up until that morning Jim had lived with. The settlers had strong ties to each other and they would have been like family to him. 

She got to the ship and saw that the rest of the squad had regrouped. She glanced at Hal and he shook his head, then went inside. Flint took one look back at the burning camp and sighed, before climbing the ramp. The hatch lifted to close behind her even as the Hispaniola lifted off. 

Inside Flint found Livesey already waiting. The medic had their kit ready and Flint set Jim down on one of the storage lockers. He whimpered when she disentangled him from her and visibly flinched when Livesey came towards him. The medic gave him a reassuring smile. 

‘It’s all right.’ Flint rested her hand on Jim’s fair hair. ‘Leander is just going to check you’re not hurt.’ She looked at the medic and they got to work, examining Jim for injuries.

‘Nothing too serious.’ they said when they were done. ‘He’s suffering from mild exposure and then there’s obviously the shock. All in all he’s a lucky little boy.’ They ruffled the blond hair. Jim looked up at Flint, eyes huge in his little face. She smiled back encouragingly and then picked him up again. He snuggled against her. 

‘Suggestions?’ she asked and Livesey shrugged. 

‘Something hot to eat and bed.’ they said. 

‘Now that sounds like a very good idea.’ Flint looked down at her charge. ‘What do you say?’ She smiled as she got a small nod. 

‘More strays.’ Hal remarked as he passed her, grinning. Flint ignored him and took Jim up the gangway and into the ship. 

*********

‘She what?’ Silver looked at Black Dog. 

‘Hal’s just called it through.’ Black Dog was grinning. ‘Looks like we’ve got a new cabin boy.’

‘Crap.’ Silver knew what his wife was like. She had a knack for picking up strays. He got up. ‘Watch her for me.’

‘No sweat.’ Black Dog was chuckling.

Silver left the cockpit and headed down the gangway that led to the ladders and the crew quarters. He found Flint in the galley. Jim was sitting on the counter watching her as she rehydrated some food for him. 

The boy was dirty and looked shell shocked but otherwise unharmed. He saw Silver and moved closer to Flint. She turned and saw Silver and gave him one of those looks that he knew better than to dispute. 

He came forward and looked at Jim. He liked the boy, liked his independent spirit and sense of adventure. 

‘Are you all right?’ he asked and Jim gave him a shy nod. 

‘He’s freezing and hungry.’ Flint said, her matter of fact tone daring Silver to start something. ‘I’m getting him fed and then he’s going to sleep. We can contact HQ in the morning.’

Now it was Silver’s turn to give her one of those looks. All survivors were supposed to be transferred to a sky city as soon as possible but he knew his wife far too well. 

‘And just where is he going to sleep?’ he asked and Flint smiled at Jim as she handed him a bowl of reconstituted soup. 

‘With us of course.’ The way she said it left Silver in no doubt as to her intentions. 

‘No.’ he folded his arms and tried to stand firm. Unfortunately, facing off against Flint usually meant losing. 

‘Yes.’ She smiled at Jim as he sipped from the cup of soup. ‘He stays.’

********

After she’d gotten Jim to eat, Flint took him to their cabin and hustled the boy into the ablutions unit. The hot shower warmed him up and he came out clean. Flint dried him off and then handed him one of her t-shirts to wear while she got the hammock out of her storage locker and strung it up. She got him stowed in it and waited with him until he fell asleep. 

A beep of her door entry system told her she had company and Flint went to let the visitor in. It was Hal and he was grinning from ear to ear. 

‘Your husband’s pissed.’ he announced and Flint snorted. She let her second in command in and he went to peer at the sleeping child in the hammock. ‘So are we keeping the little bugger?’

‘You know what will happen if we transfer him.’ Flint said, the disapproval clear in her voice. ‘He’ll just be a number to them. Here at least he’s with people he knows.’

‘HQ is going to crucify you.’ Hal chuckled. ‘He’s too young.’

‘He stays with us.’ Flint replied. ‘End of story.’ 

‘And what exactly do we do with him?’ Hal looked at Jim. ‘He’s really little.’ 

Flint came to stand next to him. 

‘We teach him.’ she replied. ‘He’ll learn better here with us than with them.’ She stroked Jim’s hair. ‘At least with us, he has a choice. With them, who knows where he could end up?’

‘Fair enough.’ Hal peered at the sleeping boy. ‘Guess I better tell the others.’ 

‘And find out who won the pool.’ Flint added as he got to the hatch. Hal chuckled. Their squad were a bunch of inveterate gamblers and the second Morgan had returned with news that Flint had found a settlement child still alive they had started taking bets on his fate. He didn’t have the heart to tell her though that everyone knew she would keep the boy and the actual bet had been on how long it would take before she told him. It was better to allow Flint her notion that she was an intimidating commander and not the huge softy they all knew she was. 

He left the cabin and the last thing he saw as the hatch slid closed was Flint leaning in over the boy, a fiercely protective look on her face.


	3. Ross

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ross' life did not turn out the way it was supposed to.

Ross was never meant to be a soldier. 

He was born into a life of privilege, the son of two commanders whose missions had taken them only to war rooms and strategy meetings. Their combined intellect was considered to be formidable and they commanded the sky city Nampara which patrolled the northern hemisphere and provided the base for many missions that killed many Skree in the battle for their homeworld. 

Ross though it rather funny that he was learning about his parents in his Earth History class at school. To him Grace and Joshua were not the grave remote figures he saw in the holo-programs. They were kind but stern parents who treated him like an adult even when he was young and gave him choices they never had. 

He grew up surrounded by every comfort the sky city could offer him. He played with other children in the parks under the protective dome that shielded them from the worst of the UV radiation and maintained their artificial climate. He had toys and technology and abundance. 

Then one day, Grace took him to see the refugees.

They had come from a settlement to the south, brought in by one of the hunter-killer ships. Ross stared at the children that filed past him, their hands and faces dirty, clothes often worn through and filthy from their ordeal. Many of them were crying and holding onto the hands of the soldiers that had brought them in, desperate for any kind of comfort that they could find after having often lost their entire families. 

That night he sat at the dinner table eating his hydroponically grown vegetables and declared that when he grew up he was going to be soldier. 

His parents had exchanged glances and allowed him their indulgence. They both knew Ross would grow out of his idealistic thoughts once he realised that he could do far more good commanding alongside them. After all he had inherited their gift for strategy. All the tests showed he had above average intelligence and the ability to assess situations in seconds. His leadership skills proved to be second to none and so they had no doubts that when he turned sixteen, Ross would happily enrol in the command academy and be trained to follow in their footsteps. 

Unfortunately this was not the case.

What happened instead was Ross going out with his friends on the night of his birthday, getting drunk off a bottle of moonshine that they bought from a black market vendor, stumbling into a recruitment office and signing up for basic training. 

Joshua and Grace had been livid. The shouting match that ensued was enough to wake every servant in their penthouse apartment. 

The next step was to try and get the enlistment revoked. But the law stood firm on this and they eventually had to resign themselves to the fact that their son was now a common grunt along with a good number of the refugee children they had given sanctuary to. 

Ross arrived at basic training with no regrets and a will to succeed that burned deep inside of him. The harsh conditions of his training and the strict discipline brought out something in him that he’d never had before, an independence that he thrived on. His instructors were doubly hard on him, making him prove himself again and again in a bid to set an example for others. They did not want it said that Ross was given an easy ride because of his family’s influence and neither did he. 

For two years Ross learned how to kill without mercy, handle weapons and jump from a moving ship to fly through the air before he hit the ground. He changed from a gangly uncoordinated boy into a muscular and rangy young man, his dark eyes stern and his reflexes lighting fast. 

He also learned the value of leaning on others and how it felt to trust someone with his life. He met a fierce red haired girl who punched harder than men twice her size and had no compunction about fighting dirty if it meant she would win, and a sweet faced compassionate boy whose poor circumstances had left him no choice but to go into the United Earth Defence Force and who chose to heal rather than harm. 

They became his closest friends and allies and when Ross turned eighteen, he used his family’s influence for the first and only time and made sure the three of them would be assigned together. Their orders came through four days later and they learned they were bound for a hunter-killer called the Hispaniola.

Ross was delighted. Captain Jamilla MacGraw was a legend in the UEDF, her squad well known for their excessive kill numbers and their toughness that made other squads give them a very wide berth whenever they came to Nampara. He was looking forward to being under her command, sure that he would learn far more from her than endless hours of simulations could ever teach him.

Now it was the night before their departure and they were doing what all new recruits did, trawling the bars in Nampara’s under levels and getting into trouble. 

They had ended up in a noodle bar somewhere on sub-level five. Demelza had a lead on an illegal fight that was taking competitors off the street and she was keen to win some credits before she left the city. 

She slurped up her noodles with all the grace of a level seven sewer rat and Ross grinned. His mother would have been appalled at the company he kept these days but he wouldn’t have traded her and Dwight for anything. 

‘Pig.’ Dwight admonished and Demelza flicked her spoon at him, a glob of the thick soup landing on his uniform and making him swipe at her in retaliation. 

‘You don’t even know what a pig looks like.’ she retorted and it was such a ridiculous insult that made no sense at all that Ross burst out laughing. He dug into his own bowl and kept eating, a steady consumption of nutrients that he’d learned at the elbows of a bunch of settler kids who would gladly knock your teeth out for a second helping. 

‘So.’ Demelza had that tone in her voice that meant nothing but trouble. ‘Are you two low level feeders going to put on your outside pants and join me?’

‘No.’ Dwight looked affronted. ‘Only you’re thick enough to want to get your teeth knocked in.’ Demelza bared the teeth in question at him, her blue eyes sparkling with challenge. 

‘You’re an infant.’ she mocked and Dwight kicked her under the table. She turned to Ross. ‘What about you, sir?’

The word was loaded with sarcasm. Demelza had serious authority issues. It was something that had seen her sent to solitary more times in the past two years than Ross could remember. She always went the same way as well, kicking and screaming and fighting until they slammed the door shut on her. Her tempestuous nature was well known in the cadet training blocks and she’d once taken down four older cadets when they had tried to gang rape her in one of the ablutions blocks. Their bodies had been taken to the mortuary bearing injuries that had become the stuff of nightmares and a stern warning to those who would try anything like that again. The younger cadets in their unit idolised her and followed her slavishly. 

To Ross though, Demelza was also warm and funny and had had come to cuddle him in his bunk that first month when homesickness had hit him hard and the reality of what he’d taken on had dawned on him. 

‘No.’ he replied. ‘I have my commission to think of.’ He gave her his most infuriating grin and she gave him the finger. It was good natured though. They all knew that Ross had earned his Lieutenant’s pips through graft and excellence. 

‘Fuck you and your commission.’ Demelza snorted. ‘They’re paying eight hundred credits to anyone that lasts the whole five rounds. I can buy my own commission with that.’  
‘And you’ll probably have to spend most of it on corrective surgery when you’re done.’ Dwight observed. 

‘Or I can just get you to bandage me up.’ Demelza laughed. She gave Ross her best pleading eyes. ‘Come on. We’d be unstoppable.’

‘Not a chance.’ Now it was Dwight’s turn to laugh. ‘How is he supposed to pick up a pretty-boy if he’s got a bloody nose?’

The two of them laughed at him and Ross smiled. Down here in the levels, anything went and his choice of sexual partner was not seen as anything unnatural as it still was in some sky level circles. Out of the three of them, Dwight was the only one that preferred the opposite gender. Demelza wasn’t fussy at all, taking on male or female and every shade that ran between. The only limit she set was for the people in her squad. 

‘I’m not picking up anyone.’ Ross pointed out. ‘I need to be on form for tomorrow. I only get one first impression.’ 

‘True.’ Demelza wrinkled her nose as something unidentifiable on her spoon. ‘I heard that on your first day, Flint drops you into a live fire by yourself and waits to see who makes it out alive.’

‘She wouldn’t do that.’ Dwight looked alarmed. ‘Would she?’

‘No.’ Ross glared at Demelza for scaring him. ‘She wouldn’t.’

Demelza flashed him a feral smile and kept eating. 

Once they were done with their last dinner city-side, they went to go track down the fight Demelza had been on about. 

She got to four rounds and then got knocked out by her opponent. It still won her three hundred credits and she was as happy as anything as they made their now very inebriated way back to the cadet barracks on sub level one. 

The next morning found them all with stinking hangovers from too much rotgut and Demelza sporting a fine example of a black eye. Their commanding officer shook her head at them and then herded them up to the landing platform with their gear stowed in their duffles and slung over their shoulders. 

Ross watched as a formation of hunter-killers flew over them and then noticed that one had detached itself from the formation and was making its way down towards them. The dome slid open to allow them access and his heart started to pound in anticipation. 

He stood up even straighter than he already was, inhaling and exhaling to evenly to calm his excitement. He’d taken special care that morning, making sure his uniform was perfect and his boots polished to where he could see himself in them. 

Next to him, Demelza and Dwight were equally immaculate. Their berets were set at just the right angle, their lapel badges proclaiming their specialties – combat medic for Dwight and demolitions for Demelza. 

The ship came down towards them, landing gear extending. She was beautiful, her sleek black hull making her look every bit as deadly as her firepower made her. She was also much larger than Ross had realised, but then she was the permanent home to her flight crew and squad, fifteen in total. They were replacing three soldiers who had been killed a few raids ago and they would be the junior members of the squad. 

The Hispaniola landed, her suspension taking her weight. Her engines powered down and the landing ramp at the bottom lowered. Two figures appeared and stepped out into the light. They came out from the shadow cast by the ship and started walking towards them. Ross held his breath as he saw that the front figure belonged to Flint. She hadn’t dressed for the occasion as they had, wearing her duty armour and cradling her rifle in her arms like it was a natural extension of her body. Her head was uncovered, her short black hair exposed. Her black eyes were sharp as she got to them and they snapped to attention. She looked them all up and down and then turned to their CO and nodded, staying silent. Their CO fell back and Flint moved to stand in front of them. The man behind her was grinning, his smile razor sharp. Like Flint he was in armour and massively built. 

Flint came to stand in front of Ross. He noticed that she was as tall as he was, and he’d shot up in the past year to six one.

‘Report.’ she instructed and he saluted. 

‘Second Lieutenant Ross Poldark, ma’am.’ He rattled off the words. 

‘And these two?’ She kept her eyes on him and her stare was piercing. 

‘Lance Corporals Carne and Enys, ma’am.’ Ross met her eyes and steeled himself under her scrutiny. 

Flint eyeballed him for a moment longer and then turned abruptly. 

‘Let them have it, Hal.’ she called over her shoulder as she started walking back towards the ship. The huge man grinned at them.

‘Fall in, kids.’ he ordered. ‘No time like the present to get your ass killed.’ 

They fell over themselves in their rush to pick up their gear and follow their new CO and her second to the ship. Hal led them up the ramp and into the bay at the back of the ship.  
It was cool and dim inside, the smells inside a mix of metal and lubricant and the unmistakable smell of cordite. The bay was spacious, lined with storage lockers. Hal turned around and they almost ran into each other before they stopped. 

‘Rules.’ he rumbled. ‘I’m your go to guy for whatever you need. Flint runs a tight ship and I’m her guard dog. I’ll be the one keeping you in line, but you do right by us and pull your weight, we won’t have any problems. Copy?’

‘Yes sir.’ they all said in unison. 

‘Excellent.’ He turned and waved a hand at the gangway in front of them. ‘That leads up to the squad room. You’ll sleep up there with the others. Everyone gets their own bunk and I expect you to keep it in order. We work to a duty roster – everyone has their assigned detail. Nobody gets a free pass on that. I’m going to take you up and introduce you to the others. They’ve been through some shit so you show them the respect that they are due and they’ll teach you how not to die. At least not yet. The rule on this ship is if you don’t know something you ask. There is no harm in asking questions and I’d be the worst kind of XO if I didn’t answer them.’ The smile softened. ‘You kids are walking into a world of hurt out there. I am not going to make this any harder for you. Understand?’ 

They nodded and he chuckled. 

‘Come on.’ He beckoned to them with one giant paw. ‘Let’s get you settled in.’

They followed him up the gangway and to the squad room. It was fairly large by the standards they were used to, every surface cluttered with gear in orderly piles and crates on the floor that were full of ammo. Their bunks were built into the bulkhead and would also double as lifepods should they ever have to ditch. 

There were five people al sitting around, three woman and two men and they lifted their heads and looked Ross and the others in interest. 

‘These are the new kids.’ Hal said by way of introduction. ‘Poldark, Carne and Enys.’

The rest of the squad greeted them in a friendly fashion and Ross’ trepidation started to wane a little. 

‘Get them bunked in.’ Hal instructed the rest of the squad. ‘Where’s Flint?’

‘Came in and went out.’ one of the woman said. ‘She’s gone to talk to Silver.’

‘Okay.’ Hal turned to Ross. ‘These guys are your new parents, kids. Get to know them.’ 

With that he left the squad room and left Ross and the others at the mercy of the five soldiers, who were all grinning at each other. 

Ross felt Demelza and Dwight move a little closer to them and offered the other soldiers a winning smile of his own. 

‘Hi.’ he said. 

‘Hi back.’ This was from the same woman who had spoken. She was olive skinned and had strange tattoos on her face and a lilt to her voice. She nodded at the other side of the room. ‘You three can bunk there.’ She waved a hand at the others. ‘So that’s Julio, Marek, Lissa, Jonas and I’m Leeia.’

‘Ross.’ Ross held out hand and was immensely pleased when she shook it. ‘This is Dem and Dwight.’ 

‘Nice to meet you.’ Leeia smiled at them. ‘Welcome to Nola.’

********

Flint climbed the gangway to the cockpit. She got to the hatch and leaned in. Silver was at the controls and he was laughing at the young man next to him who was craning over the instrument panel to get a better look outside. 

‘What is he doing?’ she asked Silver, amused by what she saw. 

‘Just looking around.’ The young man turned and Flint smiled at the face of the person that had grown in front of her eyes from a scared ten year old boy into a cocky eighteen year old with a death wish and the most incredible natural talent for flying that she had ever encountered. 

‘See anything you like?’ Amusement coloured her voice. 

‘New recruits.’ Jim raised one gold eyebrow at her. ‘Always interesting.’ 

‘They’re your age.’ Flint replied. ‘You should go make friends.’

‘No.’ Jim was scornful. ‘They’re UEDF.’

‘And so are you my love.’ Flint pointed out. Jim and Silver looked at each other and exchanged grins. 

‘Barely.’ Jim snorted. 

‘He has a point.’ Silver was wearing that wolfish smile of his. ‘You soldiers are a different breed.’

‘And you pilots are all certifiable.’ Flint bit back and he threw back his head and laughed. 

‘Get Nola up in the air, kiddo.’ This was to Jim. ‘Let’s get the fuck out of here.’

*********

Down in the ship, Ross was wide eyed as he listened to the stories the squad members were telling them. Next to him Demelza and Dwight were equally enthralled. 

They had stashed their gear and made up their bunks and now were all crowded around the table in the living section. It was up and long from the squad room, a long space that had a galley and a rec section as well as seating units. 

The older soldiers were laughing and then stopped as the ship shuddered underneath them. Ross could feel it lifting off. It felt completely different to the simulations, the hull making alarming creaking noises as it came off the ground. 

‘Crap.’ Jonas look up towards the gangway. He was a bear of a man with a thick red beard and a bald head. ‘Feel that?’

‘Christ.’ This was from Julio, handsome and dark haired. ‘Jim’s flying.’ 

‘Anyone want to take a bet on who pukes first?’ Leeia laughed and Ross suddenly realised that they were all looking at him and Demelza and Dwight. 

Then the ship yawed violently to port and Ross fell off the end of the bench. 

*********

‘You little shit!’ Flint was holding on for dear life. In front of her Jim and Silver were roaring with laughter. 

‘If they can’t handle a little rough flying how are they going to handle jumping out of the ship?’ Jim sounded far too innocent. 

‘I should have left you for the Skree!’ Flint roared but inside she was undeniably proud. It was hard not to be when your adopted child could take a thousand tons of metal and make it move through the air like it weighed nothing. 

Jim carried on laughing and took the ship out through the dome. Once he was clear he sent her hurtling towards the horizon. 

********

Dwight was the first to hurl his guts out, face down in one of the heads. 

Money changed hands and Leeia clapped her hand on Ross’ shoulder. He was so far coping well, having managed to keep his breakfast down. Still it was close. 

‘Looks like Jim’s trying to welcome you all properly.’ she cackled and Ross looked at her.

‘Who?’ he asked and she snorted with laughter and exchanged looks with the others. 

‘Oh, I can’t wait for that meeting.’ she said.


End file.
